It’s only been a handful of years since singer-songwriter and Oregon native Max McNown was inspired to pursue a music career in earnest thanks to a stranger he met while strumming his guitar on the San Clemente Pier in California. Since then, he’s topped Billboard’s emerging artists chart and seen his song “A Lot More Free” rise to No. 29 on the Hot Country Songs chart.
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The song, which highlighted his raspy, conversational vocal, was the centerpiece of his debut album, Wandering, which released in April. In the process, that song, along with followups such as “Love Me Back,” have placed McNown squarely in the ranks of acoustic-driven, folk-country artists such as Wyatt Flores and Sam Barber.
Named as Billboard’s Country Rookie of the Month for November, McNown will launch 2025 with a new full-fledged album, the nine-song set Night Diving, out Jan. 24, 2025, Billboard can reveal.
As with songs his fans have come to know, such as “A Lot More Free,” the new music centers on his poetic, observational writing style, while adding polish to his personally-crafted songs. The upcoming album will include songs such as his new release “Better Me for You,” his recent outing “Hotel Bible,” and a collaboration with Hailey Whitters on “Roses and Wolves.”
Though McNown says he always harbored hopes of being a singer, he says, “It was kind of a pipe dream. I never thought I’d pursue it. Realistically, I wanted to do something in architecture or business management, but it wasn’t until I was 21 that I even took a step toward music.”
After graduating high school at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, McNown began working at a coffee company while taking university courses online. Within months, he found himself feeling burnt out and restless. “It was all kind of building up. One day, I decided I needed to change up the scene and try something new,” he says.
Armed with a guitar his father gave him, McNown set off for California. He again worked for a coffee shop, and a co-worker encouraged him to play guitar down by the San Clemente Pier. As he was singing through songs such as Tyler Childers’ “Lady May,” a stranger came up to him and introduced McNown to Zach Bryan’s music.
“She showed me three songs, and one of them was ‘Get Out Alive,’” he explains. “I loved it and loved his voice. He did sound very similar to my tone, and it gave me so much courage because my whole life I’d been trying to sing pop songs from Shawn Mendes or Justin Bieber and my voice sounded nothing like them. I was like, ‘Okay, if he can do this with guitar and poetry, maybe I can, too.’”
Now based in Nashville, McNown spoke with Billboard about the success of “A Lot More Free,” his upcoming album, collaborating with country artist Hailey Whitters and his musical ambitions.
How are you handling the success of “A Lot More Free” and adapting to a career in music?
It’s completely life changing. It’s like everything on the exterior feels like it’s just spinning everything. We’re hitting all the different points that we need to hit in our journey. I’m just so extremely grateful and I’m definitely prioritizing keeping my foundation strong and humility in that department.
“A Lot More Free” took off about a year after the song released. What spurred that?
When “A Lot More Free” first released, I remember the first video I made for it. I was with my sister at the Columbia River Gorge in Oregon. She filmed scenes of me walking in front of the gorge and I said, ‘What if this became a travel song?’ That breakdown in the song of the harmonica and the instruments, just the feel it created started resonating with people, and they started creating their own videos of traveling to their favorite places. I saw the momentum, so I started to create compilation videos of their videos.
I would post those and say, ‘Oh, thirty-three videos have been made, thank you so much.’ Then the next day, maybe 400 videos have been made and I would make compilation videos of those and thank people for making them. It snowballed and that was the beginning of the first round of growth.
When views [eventually] started falling a bit, we put out a video of me singing the song — that second massive growth that happened was linking song to artist. I saw this massive influx of followers on TikTok and Instagram — we went from 90,000 Instagram followers to like 950,000 in a matter of under two months. We saw the difference in concert as well — at first, I would play an entire show and at the end I would play the song and you could hear the murmurs, like, ‘Oh, I love this song. Is he covering this song?,’ but after all the social media growth, on the [10-show fall] Canadian tour, people were singing the words and they knew it was me singing it.
On the new album, you team with Hailey Whitters on the song “Roses and Wolves.” How did she come to be part of the project?
I’ve been a fan on Hailey for forever. Evan Honer did a collaboration [“Fighting For”] with her and Hailey has a very distinct, pretty country voice, but she went into this register that I hadn’t really heard from her before on that collaboration, and I was like, ‘Man, I’m dying to know what she would sound like on Roses and Wolves, specifically that song. And she is just such a credible country singer.
I think part of my journey has been trying to shake the TikTok kid stigma that a lot of people will have, but I like to think that what’s coming is greater than a ‘flash-in-the-pan TikTok kid.’ To have Hailey come on to this song with her beautiful voice – I also heard from a lot of people in my camp who are connected to her, and everyone loves Hailey. So we reached out, and she said “yes” to the song. We actually just filmed some content for it and she’s the sweetest, sweetest human being.
You also circle back to another song that fans have related to, “Freezing in November,” which was inspired in part by your brother’s battle with cancer. How is it different revisiting this song on the new album?
When I wrote “Freezing in November” initially, I had no vocal training, no vocal experience, and the song was just a simple melody that stayed consistent. I been playing shows and over time I’ve started to alternate between different melodies at each show, to find a different way of driving home the emotion I want to get across. I started belting out the second verse, in the second chorus and I can just feel the different vocal capability. So to re-sing it, I feel like I did it justice the second time around.
What drives you, creatively?
I definitely prioritize writing. The lyrics are the most important thing in my music. I’m maybe not the best instrumentalist, and so I rely on lyrics anyway. The music that I’ve always loved has always been lyric centric. It’s always been about the story that you’re telling and the emotion that it’s invoking. And so yeah, lyrics and poetry are definitely where I start with all my music.
What is your favorite concert you have ever been to?
NF, which is maybe out of left field. On the topic of honest lyricism, there’s not many better than NF. I was a huge fan in high school, so to see him in person, it’s the only time in my life where I’ve seen somebody—and I had some nosebleed seats—but I watched him walk out on the stage and to see someone you adore and deeply respect, to see them there and think, ‘He’s in the same room. He’s a real human being.’ That’s crazy.
What is your go-to album that you can always listen to?
Forever by Noah Kahan. Just sonically, the instruments and the feeling…my songs are very heavily influenced by that album. Artists like Noah, Zach Bryan, Tyler Childers gave me that launchpad courage. These are basically guys with guitars, writing beautiful poetry over four chords.
When you are on the road, what is your favorite road snack?
You can never go wrong with a Snickers. If I’m a little hungry, but don’t need a full meal, that’s my go-to.
